


Little Things

by valethra



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Bonding, Fluff, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:41:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29937726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valethra/pseuds/valethra
Summary: Ichigo and Nelliel and their daughter on a very normal day— just the kind of day that Ichigo has learned to love.
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Nelliel Tu Oderschvank
Kudos: 1





	Little Things

Ichigo Kurosaki hadn't imagined, what felt like such a short while ago now, that he would ever be married with a kid running around. 

Not that he'd ever disliked kids, or the concept of marriage, or anything like that. He'd just thought that the opportunity would never present itself— that he was too stubborn, or too busy, or too hotheaded, too distrustful, too _something_.

Now, if there was too much of anything, it was love. There was so much of it in their crowded home that he felt like there wasn't enough room, somehow. Even now, he had a bad habit of waiting for when he would screw things up and it would all come crashing down. He was always waiting for the next big bad to appear, too. He had to unlearn those things. A family feast seemed like a good enough place to start.

Once, the Kurosaki clan had all eaten their dinners together at one table. With time, and with lives that became more and more hectic and with the addition of two more family members, they had fallen away from doing so. But Ichigo wanted to re-establish that tradition. More than ever now that he had a daughter. He wanted her to fondly remember those evenings as she got older in the same way that Ichigo still treasured similar memories of his mother. He couldn't deprive his own daughter of those precious moments of closeness.

Ichigo had presented this concern to his sisters, and together they had all reached an agreement that once a week, one of the siblings would be charged with preparing a huge dinner for the whole family. It seemed like a large undertaking, but with practice, Ichigo hoped that it would feel normal. And that it would become more common from there, until they could no longer remember a time when they'd eaten a quick dinner prepared with the rice cooker alone in their own bedrooms.

It was Ichigo's turn this week, and so he had been tasked with supervising his daughter and getting her ready to go on a grocery run while his wife procured some extra medical supplies for the supply closets.

"Chizue. Don't run," Ichigo warned the frantic girl. There were too many walls and sharp table edges in the clinic for that. "Get dressed."

"I can't find my ribbon!"

"Which one?"

"The blue one!"

"I'll help you look for it. We can cover more ground if we split up."

Chizue was always losing things. Ichigo would have feared that she'd inherited her Uncle Pesche's forgetfulness if not for the fact that he wasn't _technically_ her uncle in the biological sense. The ribbon was under the kitchen table. That was where it always ended up.

Once the kid was properly dressed, Ichigo sat her down on a wooden stool and took her ribbon and more pins from the top of the dresser than he would probably need. He could manage the maintenance of her hair without his wife's help. He'd done that much for his sisters growing up.

"Well... how are we doing your hair today?" 

"I want the braid bun!"

"Alright." He had expected that answer. Hence the bobby pins. "Remember to sit still."

Chizue, honestly, was more well-behaved than any kid he could have asked for. He knew that it must have hurt to brush through some of her knots, but she stayed motionless and didn't make any noise. He felt a bit bad about the way that she was wincing. It was time to get her talking.

"Maybe momma will let you get a new toy," he suggested, watching her instantly perk up. "You've gotten really good grades this year."

"You'll be on my side?!"

"Aren't I always?"

"No!" Chizue crossed her arms and pouted, pulling her hair from Ichigo's hands in the process. He recaptured the half-formed ponytail and scoffed.

"Name ONE time I wasn't on your side!"

"You won't let me get cookies for our special dinner and I wanna have a desert!"

Ichigo grimaced. He hated having to be a disciplinarian. He wished he could give her everything her heart desired, but nutrition was important, wasn't it?

"...Grandpa is old," he responded lamely. It was the only excuse that came to mind. "He can't have all that sugar anymore."

"But I'll take care of him if he eats too many and his tummy hurts! I'm gonna work at the clinic when I grow up, so I hafta start practicing doctor!" _He doesn't pay much_ , Ichigo thought, though he didn't say that out loud. A career in nursing was an admirable goal and he wasn't trying to crush his daughter's dreams. He'd planned on changing the subject, since he didn't want to keep being the stick in the mud that wouldn't let her have any sweets, but Chizue was way ahead of him. "Hey, daddy? How did you and momma meet?"

Ichigo couldn't help but laugh. He'd known she would ask that question eventually, but maybe not quite so soon. He was quiet as he tried to think of a satisfactory answer he could give her that wouldn't involve explaining... about sixty different things.

"That's a long story. A REALLY long story. So we don't have time right now."

"Then how about tomorrow?"

"...Soon. We'll tell you all about it soon, because, well..." Ichigo held his breath. Was he allowed to say this yet? It would be fine, right? "...You know how you've never met your Uncle Dondochakka and Uncle Pesche? How you just write them letters?"

"Uh-huh," Chizue confirmed, sounding kind of sad.

"You'll get to meet them soon. We're gonna go back to where your mom is from to pay them a visit."

"Really?!"

"Yeah, but you can't tell _anybody_. It's a secret."

"How come?"

"It's... hard to go there. It will take a long time, and Mr. Urahara will have to help."

"I like Mr. Urahara. He's nice. He gave momma her special bracelet."

"...Yep. He sure did."

There were a lot of things that Ichigo wanted to explain to his daughter. He wanted to tell her why Aunt Rukia could only come visit every once in a while but they could never seem to visit her, and why Chizue had been born with such sharp teeth, and why she could see people that other people couldn't, just like her dad and her Aunts Karin and Yuzu. He wanted to tell her all about Hueco Mundo and about all that her "Uncles" there had done for Nel so long ago. But he had promised his wife that he would wait until the time was right.

"What's momma's home like?"

"...It's a big desert. Clear sky, far as the eye can see. There are lots of cool rocks and skinny trees and things. Your Uncles live there and have a really big snake. It's bigger than me."

"Snakes don't get that big!"

"You'd be surprised! You'll see him for yourself and then you'll have to believe me."

Chizue could barely wrap her head around such a thing. _Poor kid has no idea_ , Ichigo thought. ...Was it correct to call Bawabawa a snake? He didn't know. It was the only way he could think to describe him. He wasn't even going to try describing her uncles.

Before Ichigo could draw his conclusions on the snake debacle, he heard the front door open and shut. Chizue's body jerked like she intended to stand, but Ichigo tutted at her and she reluctantly stayed still. He could hear his wife somewhere in the hallway, her footsteps hesitant and searching, until finally she looked into their shared bedroom and saw the pair there. Her face instantly lit up.

Chizue was the spitting image of Nelliel. It was something that earned them no small amount of stares on the street, or on the sidewalks, because people couldn't mind their own business and liked to assume that Nel dyed her daughter's hair along with her own. Nobody ever believed that it was naturally green. Why would they? The same people had given Ichigo hell growing up for a color that wasn't THAT uncommon.

"Hey, Chi-chi," Nel greeted, kneeling in front of the stool. She wouldn't interrupt Ichigo's work. "Are you almost ready to go?"

"Yep! Daddy's doing my hair!"

"And doing a hell— a _heck_ of a job of it," Ichigo added. A few more tugs and the updo was finished. A little push to Chizue's shoulder let her know that she could stand, at last, and she leapt into Nel's waiting arms. She squeezed tight, and then she pulled back to look up at her. Ichigo didn't like the plotting grin on her face.

"Daddy said I could get a new toy!"

Ichigo hissed and gave his daughter a warning glare, but it was too late. He'd been sold out. Nel, though, just laughed.

"Oh, did he? Maybe you will."

Nelliel took Chizue's little hand in her own, ready to lead her to where they needed to go. Ichigo looked on and smiled, and he reminded himself that everything was okay.  
  
  


* * *

Ichigo liked living close enough to the local grocery store to walk. Chizue liked walking in between her parents, one hand in each of theirs. She was definitely short enough that Ichigo could study his wife over her head.

If he didn't know better, he would have mistaken her for a human. Urahara's _gigai_ were practically indistinguishable from the real thing. This manufactured humanoid form of hers lacked her previous skull mask and horns, and the marking across her face. It also lacked the scar that had once run jagged down her forehead— a reminder of her betrayal and of great pain. Ichigo still didn't know, sometimes, how to feel about that. If it was a good thing or a bad thing. It wasn't like getting rid of the scar got rid of the memory.

She was tired. That much was obvious. He wasn't sure if that was because she had been up early or if something was on her mind. She wore that same weary smile whenever she was lost in thought. As if on cue, as if fatigue was contagious, Chizue yawned.

" _Chizue_." Nel's voice assumed a stern, motherly tone. The closest thing she could approximate to one, that is. She could never truly deny her daughter anything. "When did you go to bed?"

Chizue didn't even bother to argue.

"I was too excited to fall asleep!" That was her excuse no matter the occasion. Her head whipped around to face Nelliel, and she changed the subject before she could be scolded. She was pretty sharp for a kid. "Hey, momma— when are we gonna go on our vacation back to where you're from?"

"Chizue! I told you that was a secret!"

"You can't keep secrets from momma! You're married!"

...She had a point. Ichigo began brainstorming his defense.

"Soon," Nel answered, surprising him. "You'll have to see Mr. Urahara first. He has to give you a test to see if you're ready to go there. Not like a school test— a special kind of test."

"But— but why?"

"Because not just anybody can do so. You have to be a special sort of person. ...So you'll probably be just fine."

"Because I'm special?"

"Of course." 

Ichigo left it at that. He didn't have anything more to add, anyway, that wouldn't give too much away. If their suspicions were correct about their daughter, Chizue would fit right in Hueco Mundo. She'd likely seen it in dreams or felt some invisible pull there. Something she was too young to put into words.

Ichigo kept Chizue company while Nel got a shopping cart for them to use. The store was strangely crowded. Ichigo could only guess that most of the shoppers were scrambling to make last-minute Mother's Day plans. He was glad he'd thought ahead for once so that he didn't have to join them in their shared agony.

When Nel reappeared with her chosen cart in tow— one she wasn't particularly happy with, if he was reading her expression correctly— Ichigo was trying to force his way past some idiot with a magazine.

"D'you mind?" He growled. "I'm trying to get to my wife over there."

The man obstructing his path looked up from the glossy pages that had so engrossed him and over at Nel. He seemed to register, just then, where he was standing. He hurried to clear the way.

"Sorry, man," he mumbled over his shoulder. Ichigo did not respond. He would normally be more annoyed, but he still liked getting to say "my wife" to people. It made him strangely giddy.

"All of the good carts are gone," Nel explained when she was reunited with her posse. "If I had known it was going to be so crowded I would have set out earlier."

"We'll manage."

"Where are the rice noodles again...?"

"Pesche rubbed off on you, huh? It's aisle four."

"Right! Right. Let's get going. We have about an hour before we have to be back."

Nelliel led the way, walking as she would when dutifully marching towards her next battle. The sound of her brightly colored flip-flops slapping against the store's tile made Ichigo chuckle. Nel may have been disguised as a human, but she was a hollow at heart, and so some of her fashion choices were still a bit suspect (or maybe they were perfectly normal, but seemed uncharacteristic to him because he knew more about her than anyone else did). Her white sweater was normal enough. It was loose at the waist and hung low on one shoulder, revealing what looked like the strap of a light blue undershirt beneath it. It looked soft. And also too warm for this time of year.

"You're sure you can handle the whole dinner by yourself?" She asked when they were still looking at vegetables. Ichigo was almost offended by her lack of faith.

"I can cook!"

"You can, but this is a rather large meal, isn't it? And you've never tried this recipe before."

"I'll... I'll figure it out. I guess. Can't be THAT hard. I just wanted to do something kinda special since we're all gonna be together."

"I can help!" Chizue offered. Ichigo laughed.

"Yeah, see, Chizue's gonna help. So it'll be fine."

"But only if I get to make desert cookies," she amended. Ichigo hadn't realized he was being bargained with here.Oh, hell— a couple of cookies couldn't hurt. He'd just have to teach her about moderation. 

"...Guess I don't have a choice, then." He'd expected Chizue to celebrate her victory, or to tease him in some way. But instead she yawned again, her shoulders slumping forward. She crashed into Nel's hip. Nel brought the cart to a halt to steady her.

"Are you that tired? You can ride in the cart if you'd like, but you should have said something. We would have let you stay at home to take a nap."

"I wanted to come! I wanna pick out frosting and sprinkles for the cookies," Chizue said through another yawn. Apparently she had already assumed she'd get her way somehow. Maybe she was just optimistic.

"C'mon," Ichigo said. Without warning, he hoisted Chizue up, and up, and up until she was on his shoulders. She didn't argue with him. He would notice if she was slipping, but at least this way she didn't have to walk. Nel watched with a look of mild concern.

"Is that good for your back?"

"My back is fine!"

His back WAS fine, but Ichigo knew what she meant. He was surprisingly achy considering the fact that he was still relatively young. He suspected that all of the world-shattering battles of his teenage years were catching up to him. That he was paying the price for not taking better care of himself back then. Maybe he'd start taking hot baths like Nel was always telling him to.

People laughed when they spotted the trio parading through the store like that. It wasn't a mocking laughter, though, and so Ichigo managed a polite smile when he caught someone's eye. Most of the shoppers had kids of their own and probably understood. Chizue used the top of Ichigo's head as something akin to a pillow and had not a care in the world up there. She was stuck in that state of near-slumber until Nel finally announced that they'd arrived at the aisle with the baking supplies, and then suddenly Chizue was extremely alert.

The elevation proved to be a boon for her as they perused the sprinkles. She could see the ones on the higher shelves, and they had plenty of kinds to offer. Nel, meanwhile, presented tubs of frosting for her to judge. It seemed like they were going to end up with some gaudy-looking cookies, but that wouldn't affect the way they tasted. Much.

"Purple and green, huh?" Nel asked. Chizue rattled her chosen bottle of sprinkles around.

"They're star-shaped!"

"They are— how lovely." Nel selected the most reasonably-priced type of purple frosting that she could find. "Purple and green it is, then."

Nelliel had a certain grace about her that made everything she did look elegant. She didn't even have to try. She was as beautiful wearing faded blue jeans and pushing a grocery cart with a squeaky wheel and picking tubs of frosting off of a shelf as she was dolled up for a classy evening out at some overpriced restaurant. Ichigo was content to be quiet and patient and to stare at her while she organized and counted the things in their cart.

"I want to get rid of some of my coins, if I can," she said as she worked. "I'm sure I have enough to pay for at least some of these things." Nel could always just exchange the coins for bills, but she took some strange pride in filling up her little dish on the nightstand with as many shiny coins as she could until she had enough to spend. It was one of her quirks that Ichigo liked and had no intention of correcting— it told him that she enjoyed many of the little joys of life among humans.

"Right." Ichigo waited, and while he waited, he thought.

Maybe it didn't make sense. 

There were a lot of things about his marriage and his family and his life that were complicated, and they probably wouldn't get any simpler with time. Sometimes he wondered if he'd made a rash decision when he'd asked Urahara to help him find Nelliel again (because he "just wanted to see her", he'd insisted at the time).

At moments like these, he didn't question his decision one bit. Nelliel tried to do math on her fingers before pulling out her phone to help her and then counting her coins. Chizue boasted that she was very good at math, which was why she deserved a very nice toy. Ichigo watched this benign, painfully normal exchange and felt like he was looking directly into the sun for how bright it was in his eyes. He couldn't help but smile.

 _It's the little things_ , he thought. Somehow outings like these, no matter how tiring, were his favorite days of all.

Chizue was so excited to talk to her favorite cashier— an older woman, with young grandchildren of her own, that seemed to be at the store most of the time— that she demanded to be put back down in order to do so. The lady was always happy to listen to Chizue ramble on and on.

"I'm gonna go see my Uncles soon!" Chizue told her, though she thankfully didn't elaborate on the parts that were supposed to be a secret. "They're my Uncle-Uncles. Not like Uncle Chad and Uncle Uryū and Uncle Renji and Uncle Mister Byakuya—"

"You sure do have a lot of Uncles! That must be nice."

"It is! I get lotsa presents!"

Ichigo snickered somewhat maliciously as he recalled Byakuya's gift of an ornate traditional calligraphy set. For a three-year-old. That guy didn't know anything about kids.

The cashier, as always, worked quickly and efficiently, and before long the trio was on their way home. Nel likely could have carried all of the groceries on her own, but Ichigo insisted on holding at least a few of the bags so that Chizue could continue to hold her mother's hand. Chizue also continued to chatter as she walked, this time about what sports she intended to play when she was old enough.

"Did you ever play sports, daddy?"

"Oh, sure. Your old man used to fight people. Aunt Tatsuki, too."

"That's not a sport!"

"It is if you're good at it!"

"It's _called_ karate," Nelliel said. "There are competitions. It's okay to fight sometimes, but you don't fight every time someone makes you angry. You fight when you want to defend your honor, or when it's necessary, or when you want to protect someone you love... Something important. Otherwise there's no reason to fight anyone. Understand?"

Chizue blinked. Ichigo worried, for a just a moment, that it was too early for this kind of talk and that Nel's words went in one ear and out the other. But then she smiled, and she grabbed her father's arm.

"Yep! Gotcha! Don't worry, momma— I won't let anybody hurt daddy."

 _When did I become the one that needs protecting?!_ Misplaced sense of duty or not, Ichigo figured it was the thought that counts, so he patted Chizue's head.

"I appreciate that," he said. Nel didn't miss the sarcastic edge to his voice and laughed under her breath.

The trip home flew by, as did their dinner. Ichigo's food was well received and the cookies that he'd formed into lumpy almost-hearts were only slightly overbaked. He didn't think that was his fault— he wasn't used to using the toaster oven. It was hard to tell that they were too crunchy when paired with Chizue's slathering of frosting, anyway.

Ichigo didn't know why they'd stopped doing this in the first place. He and his father did still bicker quite a bit, but it was all in good fun. A little banter never hurt anybody. Karin's deadpan storytelling was something he'd always found funny, and she liked Nel for her level head and didn't mind her occasional concerned interjections. Yuzu could brighten any room and she was able to talk to Chizue as if they were old friends. It all fit together, like the pieces of a puzzle.

Pleasant as it all was, though, Ichigo had some trouble focusing on the conversation. He waited until Isshin fell asleep with an overstuffed belly on the living room sofa before he pulled Nelliel aside, into the hallway, where they sat together on a bench meant for nervous people waiting to hear updates on their loved ones.

"So what's on your mind?" Nel opened her mouth. "Don't argue with me. I can tell."

She lowered her head, cheeks reddening slightly.

"...It's just that Chizue is getting so big so fast. And I know she has powers. I'm sure you can sense that much."

"Of course I can. What about it?"

"So... I can't help but worry sometimes. I'm grateful for my _gigai_ , but it's tiring to use. Limiting, sometimes."

"...Yeah..."

"People stare at me. So much about the human world is unfamiliar to me now, and I often don't feel as though I "fit in" here. ...What if Chizue ends up being more hollow than human? What if she doesn't feel... I'm not sure how I should phrase this. What if she never finds a place for herself? I know that we can only do our best, but there's a part of me that fears we've violated some sort of universal law."

Ichigo nodded as he slowly absorbed her words. He knew better than to get defensive. Even if things were difficult sometimes, he didn't regret any of the choices he'd made to get here. He couldn't. And he knew that she felt the same. But a decent parent was always going to worry. It was as natural as the wind, as predictable as rainfall.

"Maybe we broke some of the rules. Whatever they are." Ichigo shrugged. "But if everybody did what they were supposed to do all the time, well... I wouldn't even exist, would I?"

Nel blinked, stunned, for what felt like a long time but was likely only a second or two.

"You— You're right. I didn't even— I hadn't considered that, but you're right." Nel inhaled a deep, shaky breath. "Imagine if you hadn't been born. What would have happened then? Who would have—"

Ichigo interrupted her with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Hey, now, I'm sure somebody else coulda handled all that—"

"No," Nel said sharply, returning the favor and cutting him off. "You saved us all, Ichigo. I won't have you selling yourself short. Not after all you've done. For me... for _everybody_. You'll always be my hero."

When on the receiving end of compliments like those, Ichigo's instinctive reaction was to twist his face into what might have been the hardest scowl known to man. But his cheeks always turned about as red as his hair, so it didn't really fool anybody.

"...Stay put." He moved to stand. "I gotcha somethin'."

Nelliel obeyed. Ichigo was gone for only moments, and when he returned he had a small bag with him. He had intended to gift-wrap it and save it for a more appropriate occasion, but now seemed as good a time as any, and he was going with his gut here. Nel didn't bother to ask what it was before she took the bag and decided to find out for herself.

"Oh! That's... This is..." Nel stared at the gift, unsure of what to say, before she put it on her head.

It was simple enough, and it hadn't been all that expensive despite being customized. It was just a hat. A carefully-knit hat that looked like a horned skull. Ichigo grinned as soon as she had it in place. He felt ten years younger, just like that.

"Uryū made it. It was supposed to be your Mother's Day gift, but I thought you might appreciate it right about now. ...I know it's hard for you sometimes. And I wish you hadn't had to change anything to live here in peace, but _I_ liked you just the way you were. I wouldn't have looked for you again if I didn't."

"I... I love it. Thank you." Nelliel had two different smiles— the one that was for everyone else, and one that was just his. The one she was wearing in that moment was the latter. Ichigo took that to mean that she really liked her present, in which case he owed Uryū one. Nel moved closer to her husband to rest her head upon his shoulder. The fabric of her faux-horns tickled his cheek. "...Don't you ever worry?"

"Uh... sometimes. Not so much about Chizue and her powers, because I'm pretty sure she can handle herself, but... I worry that something bad's gonna happen. That one of you might get hurt."

"Oh? Considering everything you've been through, I suppose that makes sense. You were awfully young for a human when it all started."

"I guess so." Ichigo didn't think much about that, but he had been only fifteen when Rukia showed up. Habits formed in childhood were difficult ones to break. "Maybe that's why it's been so hard for me to let my guard down. I had to learn early. But I'll just have to re-learn how to relax. I'm sure I can manage it with you two— you guys are all I need now."

"You're absolutely sure of that?" She studied him for his reaction. If he lied to her, she would know it instantly. "Your life used to entail such high stakes, but even so, it was also something that gave you purpose. Do you really feel just as fulfilled being a _regular_ person?"

"Hey, now— I think haggling with a six-year-old is plenty fulfilling." He threw an arm around Nelliel and pulled her close. "Speaking of which— we owe her a toy. A promise is a promise. We'll have to go to that place downtown and let her pick something out. Somethin' nice."

"I could take her by myself, if you'd like," Nel offered. "Surely you don't want to go to the store two days in a row. It's awfully boring."

"Yeah," he agreed, drawing Nelliel closer still and smiling only to himself. "But still... I think I kinda like it."

**Author's Note:**

> a piece for parfaitu on discord! they wanted a short simple piece about ichigo and nelliel and their kid after the ending of bleach. i accidentally misinterpreted that prompt at first and wrote a whole human au backstory that i might eventually rework into another piece since i don't like wasting any of my writing.


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